50th Anniversary March Turns Eye to Future

Several hundred people commemorated the anniversary of a key civil rights victory on Monday by calling for a renewed dedication to fighting racism, sexism, and poverty.

Marchers approach the courthouse in silence

For more than three miles, the group made no sound other than the scrape of their feet on the sidewalk. The silent march recreated the walk downtown that thousands made in 1960 after the bombing of attorney Z. Alexander Looby’s home. The march fifty years ago ended in a confrontation on the courthouse steps and the desegregation of lunch counters. This time, drums marked the start of a rally with as much of an eye to the future as to the past.

Diane Nash addresses the rally on the Public Square

The woman who once asked Nashville Mayor Ben West if segregation of lunch counters was moral was the keynote speaker. Diane Nash issued a call to action, saying government has come to place too much value on corporations and not enough on protecting individuals.

“Things are going to get a lot worse if American citizens do not begin to act like rulers of this country and get our country back.”

Reverend James Lawson taught methods of non-violent protest to the students who conducted the 1960 sit-ins. Once reaching the courthouse steps again, he preached against complacency.

Rev. James Lawson (center) speaks to the crowd through a pair of bullhorns

“We are here because we say that we are dissatisfied with the status quo, the status quo must move to a new level of meaning, a new level of humanity, a new level for sisters and brothers to dwell in harmony and understanding, and a new level of democracy where we the people work to make the political institutions and the business institutions conform to the deepest values of humanity.”

Fifteen-year old Kesi Neblett described the march and rally a sort of awakening.

“I have to prove that what they did means something. You do what you have to do. If you see something, you have to go out there and change it and that’s what they did, and that’s what we have to remember.”

After the speeches Neblett asked Nash to autograph a book commemorating the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. The national group was founded just days before the Looby bombing, and Nash was one of its founding members.